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good evening. at the top of the hour chris cuomo is off tonight, the last night of brutal cold weather in texas. even as temperatures rise millions of texans like these people lining up for water are still in dire straights and for some the hard times could linger. according to state officials nearly 15 million people have seen water service disrupted. homes have been damaged or destroyed by flooding from ruptured water lines. 26 people have died from hypothermia, carbon dioxide and other weather related accidents. it has been a punishing week. >> supply chains are catching up for grocery stores, but we're still waiting for that to happen and folks are exhausted, shell-shocked from what happened. they've been battered. they're barely beginning to recover. we're just beginning to learn the extent of the toll.

the latest information i have is ten hypothermia deaths in harris county alone. we've got around 600 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, other deaths as well. very frustrated and exhausted residents. they've been resilient. as tough as it gets. it's a lot. >> greg abbott spoke with the president who is expected to sign a federal disaster for the state. the mayor of galveston, texas, mayor brown, i'm sorry it's under these circumstances. i know there were two distribution sites set up for bottled water for citizens. how are things going tonight? how is the recovery going? >> recovery is going well. we had distribution sites today. we distributed water. one concern for another, we had electric concerns, water into the homes a concern, and now we have drinking water, food, and repair concerns going on.

>> i understand there's still a boil water notice in effect. is there a sense when it might be safe to drink the water again? >> yes, we're working on that right now. we have guidelines, state guidelines, we have to meet for testing of the water since it was down. we're working diligently to get that back up hopefully in the next couple of days. >> the folks of galveston are used to some hardships. i've been there for a number of hurricanes over the years. there's concern not just about drinking water, water from burst pipes that's thawing and flooding homes in the area. that has to be tough to deal with. >> it's very difficult and one of our major problems. we're a historic city, semitropical in nature. these historic homes are built for heat not cold. inside temperatures as subfreezing as the outside. many pipes froze and then as it thawed out had flooding of many of these houses.

>> and in terms of power there had been the massive outages across the state, restorations, where does that stand in galveston? >> right now the power is moving back. i was informed we have 90% of our homes and businesses back in power. that is good and helps with the heat, of course. we're now struggling trying to find individuals and materials to start these repairs. >> what's the takeaway from this? texas, given the climate, a lot of the energy facilities are not weatherized for cold weather, el paso has experienced bad weather so they actually had winterized and el paso remained pretty much okay. is there anything that needs to change in your view about how power is distributed in texas or how to avoid this in the future? >> well, there's no doubt.

with the concerns we're having and around the state for sure things need to change. we're a city used to recovery, used to catastrophes as hurricanes go and we're used to coming back from those. when you have something like this where the power is down and it's outside of our control, that becomes a main, main concern here. we're looking to the state to do something about this so we don't have a repeat. >> mayor brown, i can't imagine how busy you are. i appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. thank you. bill gates is now focusing on climate change and the kind of impact we're seeing in places like houston tonight. he's an author of a new book on the subject how to avoid a climate disaster. the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need. here is a portion of our conversation. i want to start with what's going on in texas. we're watching authorities deal with how unprepared they were for this extreme weather event

and we're seeing the suffering going on because of it. what's your takeaway from what's happening? >> specifically texas was not ready for these cold temperatures and they had a nuclear plant go down because it affected the sensors. they've had natural gas plants and a little bit the wind. it's not inherent that those things aren't weatherized. wind is used in north dakota, natural gas plants run in alaska. this is unexpected. the general point that as we move to weather-dependent sources, wind and solar, that we have to be very careful about reliability, that we will need to build more transmission and have some sources. that's the general point actually is true but the

specific is in no way an illustration of that. >> the republican governor abbott scapegoated wind turbines but particularly the green new deal in general when, in reality, is that to blame? >> in this specific case, no. you could imagine 20 years from now when the renewable percentage gets very, very high you could have reliability issues but that doesn't explain any of what's going on here. this is not because of renewable dependency. this is natural gas plants largely that weren't weatherized. they could have been. it costs money. and the tradeoff was made and it didn't work out and it's tragic that it's leading to people dying. >> in your book on how to avoid a climate disaster you use covid as a mechanism to help understand how serious climate change is.

that by mid century it could be as deadly as covid. what lessons do you think we can learn from covid that would be applicable to dealing successfully with climate change? >> the pandemic is a great example where we count on the government to have expertise and to prepare us even from likely events. because we have earthquakes the government has building codes to minimize the damage and the deaths, fema that can step in there. for the pandemic as far back as 2015 highlighting this as a huge problem, the right steps were not taken. even as the pandemic came upon us some of that expertise wasn't used.

we'll be looking back and the what we should have done differently and the trillions of dollars in cost and huge human misery that doesn't even get into that economic figure that we will make those investments and that will be great. climate is very similar except, sadly, with climate once you get into the problem, the coral reefs dying off, the arctic ice being gone, you can't reverse those things just by inventing one thing. with the pandemic, thank goodness, the pharmaceutical industry, pfizer on its own, the others with some u.s. help did come up with the vaccines that now we can see the end is in sight even with the variant slowing things down. with climate it won't just be one breakthrough like that. and if you let it start to happen the instability, the

die-off levels will be way beyond the problems we've had here with the pandemic. >> where do you think we are in this pandemic? i interviewed president biden just the other day. he was saying he thinks by end of july there will be enough vaccines available for anybody who wants one. doesn't mean it will be in people's arms by then but they'll be out there and available. and by december of next year we'll be back to normal, though i talked to fauci after that who said it depends on how you define normal. where do you see it? when do you think a semblance of normal returns, and do you think that end of july figure for the vaccines is right? >> yes. so the supply side on the vaccines is a very positive picture. not only do we have pfizer and

moderna upping their capacity, we have also johnson & johnson that have proven to be effective and are coming along and there will be u.s. factories so that will join in meeting that u.s. demand. having the supply side by july is very likely. the logistics have been limiting. they vary state by state. i think the lessons of the states who did it well, if we had to do it again, the cdc should have had the clear website to organize things. it's to late to start that over. the logistics could push that out a month or two. the variants may mean even people like myself who are lucky enough to have been vaccinated we may get a booster dose that's adapted to those so there will be some logistics to that.

the true limiting factor may be the demand, how many people are open-minded as they see there's very, very little in the way of side effects and you're protecting your fellow citizens. >> you can see our full conversation with bill gates for an hour-long conversation tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. next for us tonight what to make of the ted cruz apology tour after his brief moment in the mexican sun while his constituents were freezing. we'll talk to the executive editor of "texas monthly." makes it her business to know how he operates. and later new information on how effective just one dose of a two-shot covid vaccine could be but a warning as well. that and more when we continue. research shows that people remember commercials with exciting stunts. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home. insurance is cool. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss.

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senator ted cruz made more regretful noises about flying to cancun. with his wife and daughters while millions shivered in the cold and dark. you'll recall he left on wednesday for a long weekend at the ritz-carlton and came back yesterday suggesting that was the plan all along. it wasn't true nor was his suggestion it was at the behest of his kids. text messages reported in "the new york times" showed otherwise. in any case he returned to some angry texans and today offered them this. >> it was a mistake. at the same time, look, i have to admit i started having second thoughts really as i sat down on the plane. school had been canceled.

it was something we could do and we were trying to take care of our families which is what millions of texans are doing. but at the same time you're right. as a leader you need to be here and you need to be here when texans were hurting. that's why i didn't feel good about it even as we were heading out. i knew why we said yes, but i was thinking it was a mistake almost from the outset. >> joining us now is mimi schwarz, editor of "texas monthly. "how are you holding up? how are things in houston? >> well, we have, as you can see from the lights, we have power, and i had my first shower this morning. we have water. so normalcy is returning. it's a little warmer tonight than people thought it would be. there are broken pipes everywhere. we have no idea what the death toll is going to be. it's infuriating, and what he said made me mad all over again.

>> do you think he should not be continuing to explain this? >> no, i'm glad he apologized, i guess. that's a good first step. he's been our senator for a long time. he knows where he's supposed to be. sheila jackson-lee, our congresswoman, was out giving out water, taking care of her constituents. beta o'rourke was out. i think his behavior is reprehensible. >> what do you make of him? amanda carpenter wrote this piece on cnn.com that links it to the role he's taken on, not someone representing particular constituents but has a global -- a national platform. he's clearly interested in being president at some point. it's all about being on hannity's show and tweeting and being in the forefront.

>> i can't remember if that's the essay where someone talked about, you know, texas leaders being more performative than caring about their constituents. if he thinks -- i know he wants to run for president, but my question is how long are people's memories going to last? this is a pretty devastating thing that's happened here on top of hurricane harvey, on top of the pandemic, and i can't believe there's not going to be some payment extracted for this for him. >> do you think -- do you think he will be forgiven? >> we're a forgiving people in texas. i just don't know. that's the question i'm asking. if he were up for re-election, he's up in 2024. i think if he were up next year

it would be really interesting. if it were sooner rather than later. >> it is -- so many politicians forget that -- i don't know why people forget, but everyone has a camera on their phone. i'm not sure how anyone would have thought that they could get away with this and he's clearly checking his phone when he's sitting there on the plane at the gate clearly must have -- i know he said he started to regret it then. i can't help think he started to regret it because he saw -- >> he was getting caught. >> yes, he was getting caught. i wondered, i thought about lindsey graham getting mobbed at the airport, and i thought, well, didn't ted cruz -- did he miss that clip? what happened there? and i think he probably knew by then he was already sunk. this is a guy who leaves his own poodle at home when it's 27 degrees. >> well, that's a whole other aspect of the story. that i was trying to figure out. was there food left out for the poodle?

>> i think the security guard had to take care of the poodle. there was a security guard outside their house. >> how long do you think this is going to go -- i'm not talking about the cruz thing but how long are you expecting this to go on for, and do you think anything is going to change based on this? there's talk of the need to weatherize these power facilities. >> i think that will be next week's task. once people start looking at the expense. i read a story they think the damage will be worse than hurricane harvey which was $19 billion. so i think we just don't know yet. it's going to be massive. and i'm hoping that the electorate will think of this going forward, because we can change things and we can make our lives better.

we have to have leaders who are more responsive. >> mimi swartz, take care. >> amanda carpenter's piece can be found on the bulwark, not cnn.com. just ahead new numbers from a key model that tracks the course of the coronavirus and what they say about how long before we reach normal. also, dr. anthony fauci's pushback on new research that says one dose can be effective. the implications of the debate on the vaccine shortage. it's not “pretty good or nothing.” it's not “acceptable or nothing.” and it's definitely not “close enough or nothing.” mercedes-benz suvs were engineered with only one mission in mind. to be the best. in the category, in the industry... in the world. lease the gla 250 suv for just $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.

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a key model used to forecast the course of the coronavirus is positive news tonight about declining deaths and cases but a sense of caution. the institute for health metrics and evaluation from the university of washington says it does not expect the u.s. to reach herd immunity prior to next winter.

the reason those more transmissible variants now spreading across the country. i spoke with the director of the institute and he says we may be prolonged to a return of normal. >> the reason the fall may not be what we're hoping it to be is there's evidence emerging that there isn't necessarily protection from one variant to the next variant. a lot of people being infected doesn't necessarily mean in the presence of the new variants that we'll have the protection we hope for. >> the heels of research >> arguments for one dose strategy to get more vaccines to people is controversial. a study found one dose of the pfizer vaccine, 85% effective in the month after administered. dr. anthony fauci pushed back questioning receiving one dose. saying the testing just hasn't been done in that way.

a cnn medical and a cyst and infectious disease specialist who served as medical adviser to president biden in the transition and a former profession and offer of "my lifelong fight against disease." the thought of not achieving herd immunity before next winter is certainly daunting. do you think that's a real possibility? >> i think, number one, we need to understand that herd immunity through national infection is simply not going to happen. we've seen that's not a realistic option. now we have vaccines and the real question is whether we can reach herd immunity through the current vaccines or whether the emergence of the new mutant variants will get out ahead of us and that remains to be seen. we already see the uk variant, what we call b117 variant, is likely to be the strain in march into april and other strains are coming behind that. it really depends on whether our

vaccines remain effective against these variants. they are for now. if we allow them to continue to mutate, that may not remain the case. >> which argues for getting as much vaccine out to people's arms to stop the mutations. do you agree? >> i certainly agree and i've been thinking about what's happened in the past year. it's been just about a year since we've taken this seriously and it seems like rather going into repetition of what we've done before. the moment it looks like cases are declining we start to relax. fool me once, it's your fault. fool me twice, it's my fault. we're about to fool ourselves, i think, a third time. we're hoping to get some kind of general population immunity. i call it seasonal population immunity. that's what we're heading into, seasonal population immunity. we know it from flu. we know it from the cold viruses. and vaccines can make a difference but they don't make all the difference.

they certainly haven't done it for flu and i doubt they're going to do it for this. this virus is changing very fast and we have very good evidence that the vaccines we have even when they're at their maximum efficiency aren't doing a full job to protect against them. so we are heading into trouble. >> professor, what does that mean, instead of herd immunity, seasonal immunity that covid is around, it's just here to stay and the vaccines will have to evolve and ultimately something people will get vaccinated for every year? >> that is one possibility and i think it's a very strong possibility. and we can't predict whether it will be this winter or next winter when we'll get hit again. i think we can predict pretty well we are going to get hit. the vaccines may be partially effective. you have to remember this is not the flu this is a lot worse than the flu. and so we can live with 20,000

to 60,000 americans dying every flu season. i don't think we want to live with 200,000 to 600,000 americans dying every winter. i think we have to do a lot more to control it. it's not enough to control it. we have to eliminate it from our borders. unless you think that's not possible. it is possible because i know six countries, three of which have serious epidemics, which did eliminate this virus from their borders. it can be done and we need to do it. >> you're talking about, what, taiwan? >> i'm talking about singapore, australia, new zealand, taiwan and, most of all china. they had a huge epidemic and it's under control except for infection that is come in from the outside. it can be done, but we haven't done anything like what is necessary. and that's why i say we're about to fool ourselves the third time and we're likely to get a fourth wave.

>> the ceo of pfizer said he doesn't think taking one dose of the pfizer vaccine would work, yet the debate about vaccinating more people with a single dose continues. where do you stand on the issue? >> there's the old saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away. the way i think about it is if you get one shot, you have ten apples. if you get two shots, you have 100 apples. and as the virus mutates, it takes more and more apples to keep the virus away. and so right now ten apples with one shot is enough for most of the strains but not the variant strains. so we are definitely seeing that even with ten apples you might get into trouble. and the problem with that is then you create what we call immune pressure, survival of the fittest, where you're selecting for those variant strains where one dose would not ward them off.

and so i think we need to be thinking about not just what it means in the very short term but what it means in the long term for what we might be selecting for, what variants, what mutants we might be selecting for that will actually land us in a much worse position in the long run. >> professor, you were saying we're not doing what needs to be done. what needs to be done? >> we've always done what you need to do, find those people who are contagious. find those people they've contacted. and they have to be isolated. i'll tell you the other thing we've learned about the new variants, one that's spreading here rapidly. when you get it, you have it for a lot longer, twice as long as you had it before. there's a real study done where they took a bunch of people, a number were infected. they tested them every day, did their sequence every day. they knew exactly what was happening. and those that got the variant had it for almost two weeks and

they could transmit it for almost two weeks. those who had the regular virus were cleared in about a week. these variants are really serious. you have to take them seriously and that means isolation if you are exposed. that's what it means. and we have never done that. still to come, new indictments of alleged far-right extremists who investigators say participated in the january 6 attack on the capitol and the cues the prosecutors believed they were taking from the then president. also a report on the money made pedaling hate, anger and racism. ♪ [ "could have been me by the struts ] ♪ hey, mercedes? how can i help you?

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another member of the law enforcement community charged with the insurrection at the capitol, a police officer posted video of himself at the rally fighting with other officers. according to investigators the footage shows the 55-year-old at one point running at a police line yelling charge. this comes the same day as the justice department revealed it's indicted nine people whom it says were associates of the far-right extremist group the oath keepers. prosecutors say some of those

charged appeared to be taking cues from the former president's own comments specifically about how it would be, quote, wild. sara sidner discovered the hate is fodder not for far-right leaders but those who hope to profit off it. >> some neo-nazis evading the law are profiting from their hate. >> the whole concept of nationalism is ridiculous. >> reporter: making money from online donations and getting away with it. they've been gaming the system for years. after the deadly white supremacist rally in charlottesville mainstream social media sites like twitter and facebook and payment systems like paypal started banning them. since then they've been jumping from platform to platform soliciting donations in crypto currencies for their racist and anti-semitic tirades. >> a form of social media influencer gone wrong. >> reporter: john has been following the donations.

what kind of money are these known neo-nazis and white supremacists making? >> most of them, the prominent ones that have made the news are making six figures over six figures of bitcoin. >> reporter: this streaming and gaming site became a new favorite with extremists. users tip in lemons which can be converted into cryptocurrency or cash. far right extremist known as baked alaska use it had to live stream the deadly capitol breach collecting donations as it happened. >> it's a video gaming system platform mixed with cryptocurrency mixed with a video live streaming and all of that with this layer of white supremacy and neo-nazi actors. >> reporter: take this guy -- >> it's a lot easier to say the jews did it.

>> reporter: a holocaust denier who runs one of the most prolific neo-nazi sites and gets donations online. >> he was in the top ten as far as earnings on the platform. >> reporter: he is in hiding running from a $14 million civil judgment against him. a judge found him libel for encouraging his online troll army to harass a jewish mother and young son. we first visited tonya girsh after he published her name and address online lead to go nonstop threats and intimidation. >> i hope you die you worthless [ bleep ]. you stupid, ugly [ bleep ]. >> i had a lot of phone calls with gunshots. that sound still makes me sick. >> reporter: to this day gersh is incensed about what happened. >> we are not worthy of being hated. we are very loving, and it's so important that the world knows that, sara.

it's so important, because haters don't know who they're hating. they're making money off of our pain. it's time to set some boundaries. not all speech, not all writing is free. it is not free if it terrorizes another human being. >> reporter: she and her family haven't seen a dime of the $14 million the court says he owes them. he is holding on to half a million of bitcoin and received bitcoin valued at nearly $600,000 over the past six years. another neo-nazi getting crypto donations for hate. we caught up with him in 2017 as white supremacists gathered in houston saying they were there to protect confederate monuments. you said the holocaust, you don't believe the holocaust

happened? >> show me a piece of evidence. >> reporter: there's evidence everywhere. why do you hate blacks and jews so much? >> i don't hate blacks. i hate the jews because they are behind all of this. >> reporter: the 54-year-old neo-nazi is a fugitive for using tear gas against counterprotesters against the charlottesville rally. he failed to show up for all of his court appearances. while evading justice he did show up here on dlive getting donations while spewing hate. megan studies online extremists and their earnings. how successful have neo-nazis and white supremacists been in making money? >> unfortunately, they've been very successful. i was taken aback by the amount of money that was being donated from this much younger demographic. >> reporter: in adlive said community guideline violations

will trigger suspensions and said it was appalled that a number of people abused the platform to live stream their actions. experts say the game-like arena of dlive is introducing young people into a dark world of hate. >> thank you. >> reporter: and having cash on hand could make extremists even more dangerous. >> a fascinating report. why is it so difficult to hold people accountable but so easy for them to make money online? is anything being done to stop this? >> reporter: there is, sort of, i guess is the best way to say that which is not very satisfying. a whole cottage industry by law enforcement to track those using things like cryptocurrency illegally, but it is very heart -- hard to trace it. it's like finding a thumbprint in a crime scene but not having

a suspect that matches the thumbprint and you have to search and figure out what cryptocurrency belongs to whom. that is why it's very, very difficult to find this money to be able to track the money and those who are using it illegally. >> cnn is reporting the oath keepers have been charged in a conspiracy to attack the capitol. we know the group likes to say they have former military, law enforcement people. police officers are facing criminal charges for his part in the insurrection. it's certainly troubling. i know you've been doing a lot of reporting on this. >> reporter: when you think about it just recently this week, anderson, 35 people under investigation, police officers, for potentially taking part in this or being complicit in this attack. and then you look at the extremist groups. for anyone who is looking at this, when you look at some of

these charges against them, it is clear that the government is really honing in on some of these groups who, by the way, the oath keepers, they actually go out and recruit. they try to recruit former or current police officers. they try to recruit former or current members of the military. why did they do that? they have tactical training. and so when you look at these indictments and you look at what they are doing, you're really seeing them hone in on these groups because they believe they really did conspire to do this, they planned it, they have the tactical training to do it, the equipment as well to do it and there's plenty of text messages and zillow that works as a cb or walkie-talkie they are tracking all of these different conversations where there are plans that were made before, during and after the attack, anderson. >> sara sidner, i appreciate the reporting. the evidence-based cyber security research group at georgia state university, thanks for being with us again.

sara's report about this complex system, large amounts of money being passed, i know it doesn't surprise you. you've been tracking this kind of thing. >> absolutely. in fact, the center you mentioned, the evidence-based cyber security, my colleague is on these platforms and he's watching the proud boys, qanon, watching the proud boys, qanon, patriot front. they're on the dark net and making money that way as well. >> with qanon you see people wearing t-shirts that are clearly produced, not homemade, former general flynn is out there hawking qanon merchandise. you've been looking into that money trail. what have you learned? >> it's amazing how much money has been made with qanon. there have been different faces. either people were making money because they would have on their youtube channel someone like tracy beans would show how do

you find a q drop and match it to something that president trump had said and then have her paypal account listed. but, also, with all of the parlay leading up to the insurrection at the capitol, when they talked about q there was always a link to general flynn's defense fund. so part of this was to get people to give money to general flynn for his defense. there was a citicorp, i guess an executive, james jason galinas who developed q map and he had something like 10 million visitors a month and, of course, he was raking in thousands of dollars a day by offering the service of collecting all of the q drops, naming them, and, i guess, the last one was that etsy was selling all this stuff up until the summer and then etsy cut it off. >> i think people in the country had never heard about qanon

until very recently. their numbers have ticked up since the insurrection because there was a lot of thought of, well, now that the former president has gone and nothing q or their believers thought was going to happen has come to pass that it would kind of disintegrate and we've talked to people who did leave it but clearly you're seeing money is being raised still. >> money is being raised but, also, aei, a conservative think tank -- >> american enterprise institute. >> american enterprise institute, daniel cox did a survey and they actually measured there's an uptick in support for qanon. it's 29% of republicans believe in qanon. and even 6% democrats. so the fact is qanon isn't going away anytime soon. >> as you know, jeff flake,

it normalizes them and gives them an entry in to politics. with marjorie taylor green, as they are congress women, they will make a lot of money from being congress women. and that will generate more money for qanon, it's a deceptive circle, and people at the top are making a lot of money. >> again, these are, the lies, the conspiracy theories are ant semitic tropes that have been around for centuries for some cases. the idea that it's a new form of a very old racist, aren't semitic game and that they are

profiting from it is sickening. >> it boggles the mind, because it's become popular among evangelicals. i don't understand why 27% of evang evangelicals are supporting had the. what they have managed to do is gain the different kind of algorithm on facebook and as a result, they have pulled in people from the right and left. people who believe in essential oils. people who are vegans who are enthusiastic about yoga. right now, we have a crazy amalgamation of theories. right now, q is a meta

conspiracy, that has all the others in it. >> if you search for interesting yoga and it leads you in a rabbit hole to q, explains the female supporter and it's the entry point for a lot of folks. appreciate your research and talking about it. thank you. the former president's big lie that he won the election was the -- believed what the former president was selling. keep your network, keep your number, $20 a month, no contract. don't keep that case though... this is your wake-up call, people. tracfone wireless. now you're in control. give mom the gift of food. of salads or soups or chicken fried steak, or...send good tidings with a slice of cake. gift food for any occasion. new on doordash.

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recapping our breaking news, the justice department unsealed an indictment trying to gather -- tying together, excuse me, nine alleged suspects of oath keeping. authorities say there are nine defendants from four states that coordinated plans that day in washington. investigators say the former president's repeated lies about the election inspired those who breached the capitols on january 6th, but their comments won over a north carolina businessman who believed them and went further, a lot further with cash. here is the story. >> joe biden is on the trajectory to pass the president as soon as more votes come in. >> as victory appeared to slip away from donald trump

post-election day, a wealthy conservative donor from north carolina devised a plan to find out if the election was legitimate. so fred eshelman reached out to true the vote which promises on its website to protect election integrity. after a brief phone call on november 5th he decided to conate. according to court documents he said by phone, i'm in for two, as in $2 million. in the hours after his millions were wired to true the vote, katherine engelbrecht, the group's founder, issued a press release promising significant, tangible evidence that numerous illegal ballots had been cast and counted in the 2020 general election and announced a fund in excess of $1 million to incentivize whistleblowers as mr. eshelman wanted. as time went on after he donated another $500,000, he was hardly impressed with the group's progress